


Left Behind

by Mr_Noir



Category: XCOM (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, reluctant allies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:08:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28782471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mr_Noir/pseuds/Mr_Noir
Summary: When Xcom operative Max “Cloaker” Kenan is left behind, he thinks he’s alone, he was from it. A Viper soldier known as Salin was injured by Max’s friend Steve Moore, Max makes the decision to assist her, leading to a reluctant ally for the both of them, knowing they’ll be wanted by their respective faction for allying with the enemy, they must stick together to survive.
Relationships: Viper/Original Character
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Left Behind

**Author's Note:**

> First Xcom fan fiction so let’s see how this goes.

He gripped the bleeding wound, after all he and his squad had been through, the hardships, the sorrow, the death and struggle, Max had always kept them together, so why...

Why did they leave him?

The pain from the wound in his right shoulder was intense, it would not be fading anytime soon, he shuffled into a nearby building for shelter, “Damnit...” he still remember the look his friend Steve Moore gave him, a look that said “This is necessary” like he was an expendable piece, a pawn in a game of chess, he leaned against a wall and then slowly slid down it, his rifle was still slung over his left arm and pistol still safely tucked in its holster, when he heard a loud hiss, he just closed his eyes knowing that ‘ This is it, I’m gonna die’ instead a the hissing was distinctly one of pain,

Standing up Max set his rifle down and pulled out his pistol, checking the surrounding area and checking the rooms, when he found one the hissing was coming from, the last thing he’d expect when opening it was to see a beat up Viper with a slash across its chest. It looked at him with crimson eyes, its slitted pupils narrowed and then expanded, “You’re here to kill me?” the voice came out with a pained raspy tone, but clearly distinguished as female, Max was taken aback by that, his bandana not hiding the look of shock his eyes showed,

“You talk?” he questioned, it let out a hiss that sounded sort of like a laugh, “Oh course I talk, I may not be human but I have learned your tongue”, Max lowered his sidearm, “Any particular reason your beat up and hiding in a closet?” he raised an eyebrow to show his interest, the Viper nodded, “Your squad leader with the ax-“ “Steve” he interrupted “-Steve, as you call him...slashed me across my chest, why are you not with him human?” the snake like mouth had a sort of smirk after she questioned him,

”Left behind, don’t know why, but they left me for dead...” he said a tone of sadness deep in his voice, “I too, was left behind, they deemed me not worth saving in the heat of battle and left me”, Max’s eyes softened, “My names Max Kenan, or you may address me by my code name, Cloaker, yours is...?” She stared at for a good few moments, “I do not have one”, Max was a taken aback again by this statement, “Why not?” He inquired, “We are soldiers. Bred for war, do names are a meaningless thing”, she states, “Well I’m not gonna call you Snake or scaly so give me something to call you by!” He said, his voice raising slightly, the reptilian like alien was silent, before answering, “Salin, I do not wish to associate with the idea of names, but if we are to speak with one another it would be a good idea to do so”

He nodded, “So...truce? Y’know since were both injured we’ll die on our own, and your definitely gonna die without me, since I have a medkit” he used his left hand to gesture to the wound across her chest, “That isn’t gonna just go away”, she nodded, Max pulled out his medkit and walked over to her, “This may sting”, Max said as he sprayed it over the wound which closed it with a light blue scab like materiel, “Your arm,” she said pointing to it, “Why didn’t you use it on yourself?” Max shrugged but immediately regretted it when a sharp pain overtook his shoulder, he tried to spray his wound to see if he could get any out, a small spurt came out that managed to barely cover the wound, not fixing the problem or pain, but stopping the bleeding.

She got up and slithered close to Max and checked his shoulder, “ADVENT Mag rifle?”, she asked, Max let out a half hearted chuckle “Yup, nailed me in the shoulder, I’ll give them credit, I wasn’t expecting it”, her tongue flicked out of her mouth for a moment. He walked out of the small room and sat down near his rifle, Salin slithered nearby, “Were traitors aren’t we?” she asked himself and her, she went wide eyed and and had a deer in headlights look, “W-Well...” she began her thought, Max answered it, “We are both helping and allying ourselves with a member of our enemies, there’s no going back to our faction without dying”, she hisses and but nods,

Salin’s hood was nearly flat against her neck, “I should’ve just let myself die!”, Max looked at her “Come on, you can kill me right know if you wanted to, yeah I might get a shot or two off with my pistol but I’d die, how’re you gonna explain our medkit closing up your wound? There’s no point, were in this together. And why would you want to go back you were left behind!” he exclaimed, his eyes expressive of his emotions, Salin seemed to sadden at the last part, some part of him didn’t like that so he tried to comfort her in some way. Max got up and rested his left hand on her shoulder, she looked at him upon noticing the gesture, “L-Listen, I apologize for what I said, but we really are in this together, and from I can tell your control chips been damaged, so your free”, her face spoke leagues of her confusion at the last part, “Wait, you don’t know? The Elders planted chips that resonate with their psionic power in all of you, not just Vipers like you, but Sectoids and ADVENT soldiers”,

”You mean I’ve been controlled?” She asked hood flaring, he nodded as she held her head in disbelief, “Where do I go? I have nowhere and I doubt other humans will be as nice you are”, her tough ‘I hate humans personality’ was fading, Max smirked, “Not so hateful towards me or my kind anymore? You definitely have a different tone now”, she hissed at him getting in Max’s face, “I still don’t trust you! But...” her angry face softened, “I do not hate you”,

Max smiled at that, so at least he wouldn’t be alone during this endeavor. “Friends?” He asked, his response was a laugh like hiss, and then Salin replied with “We are merely in the same position, reluctant allies not ‘friends’” he seemed disappointed but was understanding, Max noticed how banged up Salin’s armor was “Your armor is gonna weigh you down,” he said causing her to look at him, “It’ll hardly give any protection so I’d recommend you take it off”, Max seemingly regretted it because he had forgotten that Vipers were female for a moment, he whipped around so she could take it off and his eyes landed on a black jacket, grabbing it with his left hand he held it behind him, “Since I’d feel uncomfortable with you being naked...actually do you even understand that concept? Wait, wait that was rude, never mind, u-uh, just wear this!” He yelled clearly embarrassed about what he was saying, he got no answer, only the jacket being gripped and taken away from his grasp,

Salin slid the jacket the on and admired his soft the inside was, deciding that humans at least made their clothing comfortable, she had no need for it but understanding her partners uncomfortableness she put it on, it was black most likely leather, it was button upwith soft snow white fur lining the inside, with a slightly puffy edge to the sleeves and the neck hole, she buttoned it up, and spoke out “I don’t understand why you humans are so against seeing me ‘naked’ as you put it, is it something about my body?” Max turned around, and just stared, for a uncomfortable amount of time he just stared in silence, then he broke it, “You realize that you look similar to a female woman right? You probably have a different use for them being an alien, the ‘orbs’ on your chest? We call them tits or breasts and generally seeing naked ones makes men like me embarrassed”, she took a moment to process what he said before replying, “So you get sexually aroused from seeing ‘breasts’?”, she quizzed, curious on how humans feel and act, he nodded,

”It’s hard to explain, we need to be aroused to reproduce, is the simplest way to put it, think if it as if we were in heat, like an animal, but we choose when...most of the time” he looked off to the side for a moment, “So I chalk it up as the human body finding new ways to get ready to reproduce”, he sighed and dragged a hand across his face, “L-Listen, I don’t feel comfortable talking about this right now” he said sliding down the wall

She understood why he was uncomfortable, she slithered around trying to find her rifle, she remembered dropping it while getting to cover but she doesn’t know where.

Max got up and looked out the window, spotting a abandoned factory in the distance, “I think we should go there,” jabbing his thumb in the direction of the window, Salin slithered over to it, “Why?” She questioned, Max her dead in eyes, “Why do you think? Both of us will need a place to stay, especially in our current situation, you understand?” Salin nodded, “Yup, grab what supplies you can from this place, then we head out, it seems to be roughy a mile away” she nodded once more than slithered off to find what she could, grabbing a nearby bag. Max looked at the ground, “What a situation you got yourself into Max...” he muttered, he heard a hiss that sounded a like a laugh when he muttered that, “How the fuck did you hear me?” Salin shrugged grabbing a few cans from someone’s not-so-well-hidden stash of food,

* * *

The unusual duo had just made it to the factory, upon entering they realized it was actually decently heated, and had plenty of space, but the two also realized that there was a problem, “We have no bedding” Max said with a facepalm, “I don’t suppose you are able to just curl up like a snake and just lay on the floo-“ a tail wrapped around his neck and squeezed, “Do not compare me to a Earth **snake** understand?” Max frantically shook his head up and down, she hissed and let go of the snipers neck, he immediately rubbed it, “O-Ok,” he said while taking deep breath’s, “Don’t call you a snake...noted”, her ‘eyebrows’ if you call them that were slanted in an angry expression as her tongue flicked through the air a couple times, “I can, do what your reptiles can, but it is far from comfortable” she stated still seething with anger,

”I get it! You don’t want to be compared to our snakes on earth! Now then, there are some crates around the place, we should look through them for something w-“ “I” she interrupted “You could use to sleep on”, he started to break open some of the crates, they seemed to only hold some mundane things, car parts, wood, bricks, some electrical parts, clearly seeing how the car parts seemed to be for gas powered engines these were pre-war car parts, this factory had to be nearly 20 years old, “Find anything Salin?” she slithered over, “No. You?” Max shook his head, “Not yet, there’s still a few left though”, he walked over to another a opened it, “Hey I found something big enough that you can lay on it, you might need to curl up a bit” she hissed angrily, “I am **not** that large!” Max looked her up and down, “Yeah, maybe not width wide but your 7ft tall like that, if I you were to wall straight against the floor, pretty sure you’d be nearly 13ft long” she seemed to act a bit embarrassed at that but he didn’t know why,

”H-Hey, sorry if I hurt your feelings, but do you mind helping me at least lift this out of this crate before you kill me? My shoulders still jacked up” She slithered over and easily lifted it out throwing dropping it on the ground, “I wont kill you human”, Max sighed, “I’m pretty sure I told you my name, Max?” She let out another one of her hiss like laughs, “I know, I just think your reactions are funny”, she stated, her mouth lifting into a grin, he groaned pulling a sleeping bag out of his back pack, “So I’m a joke to you?” She looked at him, “In a manner of speaking yes Max, you are.” He then pulled out a portable cooker, mostly just a tiny portable pot and a small plasma fire base you hung it over, “Still hit those cans?” He asked

* * *

The canned food seemed to be tuna of some sort, or whatever shit ADVENT labels as tuna nowadays, Max made sure it was done before pulling down his bandana revealing a deep face scar, Salin seemed taken a snack for a moment before quickly regaining her composure, “How’d you get that?” She questioned pointing at his face, “Hot in a fight with a Muton, during the invasion so the bigger versions”, she nodded “The old blood Mutons?” He chuckled, “Old blood? This some kind of fairy tale? Eh, whatever, well long and short of it, he swung, I dodged the best I could, managed to hit me here, then I killed him, that’s it” she wanted to hear the full story but she was getting hungry. Max poured a bit of it into an empty can, then just gave Salin the pot, “I’m just going to assume you have a higher metabolism then is ‘humans’” he said emphasizing the word human with air quotations,

Surprising him greatly, she lifted the pot and just poured it down her throat, at first Max was just shocked but quickly remembered that Vipers seemingly have similarities to earth snakes, so not having a gag reflex probably helped with that, he just quietly ate his food. Salin then hit Max with a question he didn’t really have an answer to’ “Why didn’t you kill me?” he kept the food in his mouth for a moment before swallowing setting the can down, “I...don’t know, maybe because you were abandoned like me, maybe it’s because you were wounded and unarmed, I don’t really know” he answered, the Viper kept quiet for a moment, he went to pick up his can when he heard her reply, “You’re an idiot, you would’ve died” he stared at her, getting a bit pissed off at the insult, but she stopped him before he managed to snap back his own insult”

”But I’d be dead if it was for your idiotic kindness...thank you Max”, he was silent for a split second before smiling, “Don’t mention it”, she looked puzzled “Why not? Why shouldn’t I?”, “It’s a figure of speech Salin, it’s a version of your welcome, I swear if all the things I said THAT’S what you don’t understand?” she shrugged, “Your human sayings are still strange to me, that’s all”, she informed the former Xcom agent, “Well that’s understandable”, he said, I think we should probably sleep soon, I’ve lost my appetite”, he said pushing the can away, “Can I have it?” She asked, he looked at her before shrugging a gesturing towards the can, she are the contents of the can like she did the contents of the pot, “Well I could tell you were hungry”,

”I still am, maybe I should eat you” he looked afraid and raised his hands in a defensive and non-threatening way, “I’m joking, I believe that’s what you call it”, he breathed a sigh of relief, “Alright I’m tired, goodnight” he said crawling into his sleeping bag, “Sleep well Max” Salin said slithering over to the mattress they had found, and layer down, Max hoped things would turn out better tomorrow as he dozed off

**Author's Note:**

> I highly doubt this is good by most of this kind of fan fiction standards, but giving me respectful criticism could help me improve, so tell me what you think because I personally think I did mediocre at best, but whatever, I’ll said that you should be expecting a new chapter in about 3 days or so.
> 
> -Mr Noir


End file.
